It was the summer of 1977, unemployment was at 7.7% and gas cost .62 cents per gallon (Give Carter time and he will fix that!). There was no e-mail (except for the CIA) but you could mail a letter for .13 cents. You could buy a new house for around $54,000 or a new Camaro (really the only car to own in the seventies) for $6,000 but keep in mind the average income was 13,5000. Now imagine it is mid June of 1977. The Simlmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien was the best selling novel (Than would have made me smile) and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” would have replaced KC and the Sunshine Band’s “I’m Your Boggie Man” as the number 1 single (that would have made my whole face smile). Now imagine you were a 14 year old boy in the summer after 7th Grade. You were having realizations about who you were and didn’t really know how to deal with them. Your mom kept telling you that you had to get serious about school because High School was just around the corner. Your Dad was telling you it was time to give up childish games like football and come to work for him. You were realizing that when your mom told you that you were just different really meant that you were weird. And if all that was not enough it was summer vacation at Myrtle Beach and it was raining!
That is exactly where I was that year. My mom decided the best thing to do was to take us to a used book store to get something to read. My brother had just got me reading last summer when he gave “The Hobbit“ to read while I was bored at his house. Before that the last thing I had read was “The Giving Tree”. As I walked through those stacks of musty paperbacks I stumbled across “The Catcher in the Rye” I figured it to be some sort of baseball book so I picked it up with a grand lack of enthusiasm, since reading a book at the beach was not really what I had in mind.
We get back to the Cottage and open my new book and I read:
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
I was stunned; seriously I must have reread that sentence ten times. I can distinctly remember every time I picked up that book I would read that opening sentence before turning to my bookmark. The only time I ever openly argued with Dr. David Roth, one of 4 English professors who greatly influenced my life, was when he was lecturing on the importance of an opening line and called Salinger’s opening line in “The Catcher in the Rye” clumsy and weak. Yeah, the rest of the class had to listen to us argue about that for the next 15 minutes. But I digress. The rain stopped after that day we bought the book but I didn’t quit reading. I finished the book during that vacation. I read it again that summer and I can’t count the times I have read that book. It helped me made peace with being weird that week. I would even go as far as to say I embraced being weird that week. It carried me through High School.
I went to Concord College in 1982 and forgot everything I had learned from Catcher. I was a business major preparing to take over the Family Business (can you feel my eyes rolling). I joined a Fraternity to find acceptance and popularity. I flunked out in 3 semesters. I came home to go to work and attend
The Greenbriar Community College
, where I met another of those English professors Leslie Shaver. She admonished me for studying Business and got me reading and writing for Valley Images our school literary magazine. One assignment she had us to write about the 2 books that most influenced our life. I wrote about “The Giving Tree” and you guessed it “Catcher in the Rye”. When I told her that I was returning to Concord she challenged me to read Catcher. I did and returned to Concord as an English major with a Theater minor. The best move I ever made, because while I did not complete my degree I did meet my life partner and wifey Kristi Brewer
Who I am today is greatly influenced by a man I never met, JD Salinger. His novel effects how I see myself and effects how I work with the at-risk youth that I love so dearly. Mr. Salinger was the type of author that you wanted to call up and talk to about his book. I use to dream of having coffee with this man. However he chose to retreat from personal fame and allow his art to speak for itself– unexplained, maybe we could all learn from that decision. He once said about himself, “I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.” I guess that is on explanation of his withdrawing from society but maybe a better one would be this quote, “An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.”
I sat in McDonalds today drinking Coffee and crying while I read that JD Salinger had died at 91. I hope he left a trunk full of short stories and novels to be published. Yet, I only want them published if that was his desire. I would hate to see his cherished privacy invaded by them being published against his wishes. As I sit here with my copy of Catcher on my desk waiting to be read once again, I find comfort in knowing that this classic that has transcended generations will allow me to remember my friend.
